It must be a constant source of humiliation for journalists that have to pretend to swallow something obviously absurd, so that they can appear to be impartial. As we’ve seen since 2018 that does not result in good public policy unless your idea of good public policy comes from a Monty Python sketch.

Imagine if North Korea decided to boost its economy by renting out nuclear deterrent, “Dictators: keep the US away with Credible Deterrent(tm) warheads! (first strike capability not included)” – with Iran, Nicaragua, and Taiwan being their first customers.

When you have a dim view of the situation, and Noam Chomsky comes along to summarize how he sees things, and it pretty much matches you right down the line – well, that’s depressing. Chomsky has a long history of being right: right about Vietnam, right about Linguistics, right about Iraq, right about Bush, right about Obama, and right about Trump.

[This posting is because of discussion about execution techniques stderr]

When I was a kid, we made a family expedition to Menlo Park in New Jersey, and explored Thomas Edison’s old lab, which is now a museum. [men] I was fascinated by the great inventors – I always have been – and it felt like a wander through a stranger’s mind. Exploring other people’s shop-spaces has always held a thrill for me, trying to figure out quickly what this or that doodad is for.

Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break in pieces.

Everywhere I look, I see signs that the US has swung the steering wheel hard to the right, and is bumping and swerving into a deep, dark, forest. One with a big sign that reads “Danger, Keep Out” but has “MAGA” written on it in blood-red spraypaint.

Dawn Sturgess died over the weekend. She appears to have been killed with novichok – the specialized Russian chemical warfare agent – so far, police aren’t saying anything about how she could have come into contact with it. [nyt] This is the same chemical agent that was used to nearly kill Sergei and Yulia Skripal.